The outbreak of violence over the long Fourth of July weekend – the worst of the year so far -- once again drew unflattering national attention to Chicago’s crime woes as police Superintendent Garry McCarthy insisted the department had conditions under relative control until a particularly violent stretch on Sunday night.

McCarthy was referring to a 13-hour period from Sunday afternoon until early Monday when four people were killed and at least another 26 were wounded, many of them critically. The most chaotic scene erupted in the South Chicago neighborhood when three people were shot during a running gun battle that drew heavily armed SWAT teams and a police helicopter to the scene.

Overall, 77 people were shot, 12 of them fatally, between Thursday afternoon and early Monday morning, according to a Tribune analysis. In addition, Chicago police shot five people, two fatally.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the violence “senseless” and “totally unacceptable” but said police alone can’t reduce the bloodshed.

At a press conference, a briefing regularly used to tout the Police Department’s gun seizures, McCarthy returned to a favorite theme, calling for stiffer penalties for gun crimes as a way to reduce the violence.

The superintendent said the weekend’s violence actually was lower than last year’s holiday weekend – until Sunday’s surge of violence. He described that turn of events as a head-scratcher for him and his staff and wondered aloud if officer fatigue played a part.

“It was yesterday that we lost it,” McCarthy told a crowd of reporters at a West Side police station. “We're square-rooting nine ways from Sunday what is it that happened. Was it a fatigue factor? Did we give (too many) people (time) off? Because the fireworks were Friday and Saturday. That's where we had a lot of folks deployed during those time frames.”

Since last year, the Police Department has relied on overtime to try to counteract the violence, flooding the city’s most dangerous streets with hundreds of extra cops, in the process racking up bills of more than $100 million in 2013.

McCarthy said the department has been cutting down on those overtime expenses so far this year but didn’t hold back on overtime spending over the Fourth of July weekend, putting hundreds more officers “on the streets at the times we needed them, in the places where we needed them.”

In the past, McCarthy has denied a need to hire more officers, but on Monday he didn’t try to hide that he could use additional help. However, he quickly pointed to the budget realities facing the city.

“It would be great if we had unlimited resources, but that's not the case,” he said. “And that's why we have to manage what we have.”

But the intensity of the fighting in the South Chicago neighborhood Sunday night in particular called into question if even dozens of the most well-armed cops can stem this level of violence.

The chaos began after a couple was shot and two others then fired at the gunman. A chase ensued, shots were exchanged and a 48-year-old man on a porch was wounded in the ankle. With responding officers hearing repeated gunfire, a 10-1 -- a call for an officer in distress -- was broadcast across the city because the shots endangered police in the immediate area.

Officers from across the South Side responded, including tactical teams who had been ordered to wear their uniforms instead of plainclothes for the holiday weekend. Then the heavy equipment rolled in: A helicopter, SUVs packed with lockers of rifles and SWAT teams in green coveralls patrolling the streets with the uniformed officers.

As police were radioing about hearing gunfire all over the neighborhood, a lieutenant ordered officers to enforce a perimeter over a three-block-by-four-block area. As the helicopter circled overhead about midnight, someone shot up a house in the 8400 block of South Exchange Avenue, just outside the perimeter. Police announced the gunfire over the police radio -- before any 911 calls were received -- and officers ran down the street toward the sound of the shooting.

About half an hour later, the neighborhood had finally quieted down. “Release the perimeter,” the lieutenant ordered, though he instructed patrol cars to keep a watch on multiple crime scenes.

The holiday bloodshed illustrated how the department will be tested as summer rolls on. July is traditionally Chicago’s deadliest month.

Last year saw dramatic improvements after a particularly violent 2012 when Chicago topped 500 homicides for only the third time in a decade. But the momentum has appeared to slow so far this year. Through Sunday, homicides have dropped 5.6 percent, to 185, 11 fewer than the year earlier, police statistics show. But shooting incidents have risen to 953, up 5.3 percent from 905.

McCarthy has acknowledged that violence remains stubbornly high – particularly by comparison to New York and Los Angeles, both with consistently lower homicide totals.

On Monday McCarthy defended the rash of five police-involved shootings over 36 hours on Friday and Saturday. Two boys, 14 and 16, were fatally shot when they allegedly refused to drop guns. The superintendent pointed to the inherent dangers faced by police, noting that one officer each from Gary and Indianapolis were killed in the line of duty over the weekend.

“Having done this myself on numerous occasions, try taking a gun out of somebody's hand. Have you ever done it?” McCarthy, who rose through the police ranks in New York, asked a reporter. “It's a little difficult to do.”

As part of his message that it will take more than Chicago police to curtail the city’s rampant gun violence, the mayor went to Roseland on the Far South Side late afternoon to draw attention to Kids Off the Block, a neighborhood organization that works to provide low-income youths an alternative to violence and gangs.

“Now, a lot of people will say, where were the police? What were the police doing? That’s a fair question, but not the only question,” said Emanuel, standing before more than a dozen cameras on an outdoor basketball court. “Where are the parents? Where is the community? Where are the gun laws? Where are the national leaders, so we don’t have the guns of Cook County, Indiana and downstate Illinois flowing into the city?"

Among those playing basketball on the court before the mayor arrived was George Baron, 20, who lives in Roseland and said he had been a victim himself of gun violence.

“I have to watch my back every day because I don’t want to get killed. Or shot again,” he said. “…Everybody says they’re trying to help us, but when we need the help, everyone is gone, and we’re by ourselves again. I’m tired of it.”

A long weekend of violence has left 14 dead and 68 wounded in Chicago. At least 29 people were shot over about 13 hours starting Sunday afternoon. Four of the 29 people shot died, several more remain in critical condition. Read the story here.